Dawn has gone above and beyond for a 32 year old female patient in the Neuro ICU. The patient was admitted on June 18th. She had undergone brain surgery and had suffered a severe stroke. It was touch and go for many days. She was in a pentobarbital coma for a period of time to try to control and decrease the damage to her brain. After the induced coma, everyone was on pins and needles, praying she would wake up. It took three weeks for the patient to show some real signs of recovery. Very slowly, she was able to track with her eyes and wiggle her toes on one foot. Eventually she could look at pictures of her daughters and smile. There was great excitement when she used sign language (she is a sign language interpreter) to say "I love you" to her husband.

Dawn connected to this family right away. From the beginning, Dawn was the primary nurse. She would even switch her schedule around and come in on her off days to ensure continuity of care. That in itself was amazing, but that's not all that Dawn did. The patient and her husband were in the process of adopting their two young foster daughters, one is developmentally delayed, when this crisis happened to their family. The young children had not seen their mom in a month.

Once the patient was stable enough and was more alert, Dawn arranged a "Skype visit" for the patient and her young children. On her weekend off, Dawn brought in her personal iPad to assist with this very special visit. The patient was transferred into a chair. A beautiful scarf placed around her neck to hide her tracheostomy. A hat covered her shaved hear. And the Skype session started. Soon you could hear "Mommy! Mommy! I love you mommy!" The patient's love for her children could be seen in her smile and in her eyes. Dawn made this very special visit possible.